Pages

Friday, January 27, 2012

into thin air and back again

It's been a little bit of a hectic week. On call Tuesday night, flew out to Sacramento Wednesday to give two talks at UC Davis on Thursday...

(Which, while on the subject, thank you, UC Davis! You were lovely and gracious hosts and an impressively progressive school to boot. I have no doubt that you're producing some of the nations finest future doctors, and the administrative attention to the well-being of those future doctors is so admirable. Bravo to you all.)

...and then hopped back on a red-eye back Thursday night which dropped me back off in Atlanta at 6:00am this morning, in time to take Cal to school. Then I went home and slept in my bed, like a lot. Well, four hours. But it felt like a lot. Now I'm all woozy and I don't know where I am or what time it is. And it is to this that I attribute the fact that Cal totally creamed me in chess twice this afternoon.

Now GRANTED I haven't played chess in over ten years (like, I couldn't remember which side the queen went on the board relative to the king) and GRANTED I gave Cal a couple of do-overs ("Are you sure you want to do that?" is my usual warning for him to re-think his last move), but also, I fully admit that I am terrible at chess. Also Cal has just started reading this new chess strategy book (the book says says its for kids but I tried to read it and I could not understand what they were talking about--it was like reading a deck of cards, or deciphering glyphs on some kind of Da Vinci Code-esque ancient rune) so now he's learning tactics and saying things like ROOK SACRIFICE KNIGHT FORK and I am still...not good at chess. Like, at all.

Anyway, we ordered pizza for dinner and now we're all going to vegetate and play Lego Star Wars Wii and then I'm going to sleep some more and maybe obsess a little bit more about whether or not that fact that I'm more nauseous and more run-down with this pregnancy than with my first two means something. My first instinct is just that I'm older now than I was the first two times around, and therefore infinitely more decrepit. But then, of course, it could also possibly (possibly) mean this.

I have an appointment on Wednesday, at which point my OB offered an ultrasound to confirm the position and dangle (or lack thereof) of Thing 3's bits, so place your bets now.

31 comments:

My bet is girl. I also had 2 boys, breezed through the pregnancies, but my last, a girl was very nauseated, needing zofran....so, I bet you're having a girl. :) Congrats and can't wait to hear your news next week.

You're having another boy, if only because you gave away all the boys' old stuff and therefore sorta jinxed yourself -- because you'll be lamenting having to buy all new boy baby clothes again! If it were a girl it would all be alright, but I'm a medical person and too superstitious to not believe in the self-jinx (aka, I don't say the Q-word on call nights.) Either way, good luck with the ultrasound.

I found your blog a few months ago during my first semester of my undergraduate degree and found it so inspiring as I have dreams of both motherhood and medical school. Coincidentally, both my boyfriend and sister bought me your book for Christmas (my sister hadn't even heard about your blog or known that I knew about it!)... read it and loved it. I literally gasped with excitement when I found out you were having your third... I have a feeling it's a girl :) Can't wait to find out!

Not to be a bummer, but after two boys, I had a pregnancy with huge differences (suddenly sugar made me super sick to my stomach and I'd never had issues before, I was having very different cravings, etc.)...and, we had boy #3. Which was fine, because God knows I'm a good boy mom.

When I was pregnant w/my son (our older child), I had morning sickness, but it started @ 6 weeks and immediately ended right @ 12 weeks and while it was awful while it was going on, it was nothing compared to how I felt while pregnant w/our little girl. I was so sick that most nights I had to either sit very quietly on the couch or in our bed because I felt so terrible. Even after the queasiness somewhat subsided @ about 14 weeks...I still just felt crummy for pretty much the rest of the pregnancy until I delivered (and then, just like that I felt SO much better). Good luck--it will be interesting to see if it's boy #3 or a girl :D.

And UC Davis loves you! Thank you so much for stopping by and being so inspirational, especially to young ladies that need strong role models in medicine. I convinced some of my classmates to start reading your blog and book because I can't stop talking about how wonderful you are. =) It's great to know that you can have a life outside of medicine and your blog is a prime example of how it can be done.

This may come off as a really stupid question...but it's okay to fly in the first trimester? For some reason I thought it was not recommended? Or I could be drawing from things I learned from reruns of leave it to beaver or something.

I've only had one baby, but I was sick multiple times every day for the first 18 weeks (we're talking petechiae and everything, and I'm sure there was a tiny Mallory-Weiss in there somewhere...) and yup, he's a boy...people kept saying 'oh, it'll pass when you get to 12 weeks' and then when it didn't, started telling me stories about people they knew who were sick for the whole pregnancy! Not helpful! Might attempt another one before too long so we'll see if it's any different...

And you'll never know for sure. Just like I'll never know why the fatigue and nausea was so much worse with my second girl...except that I do know I was a couple of crucial, mid-30s years older...so that's what I blame it, on, unscientifically.

My vote is a boy. My unscientific reasoning is that most of my friends who had two girls or two boys had the same sex baby for their third. Either way, it will be a lucky baby and much love is sent your way during this exciting time!

On number 3 as well, and also more sick/tired/nauseous than #1 and 2 who are both boys. I'm blaming the age thing. And the tired thing on the two little ones I have at home along with working full time.

Since I only have 2 girls, I can only tell you that it is either DEFINITELY a girl because of morning sickness or the other truth - pregnancy and I just don't mix. This is the reason why a third is completely out of the question. The first one slayed me for 3 months....like crawling on the floor to the bathroom just to throw up every hour of the day only to feel just as bad. But after 3 months, I woke up and it was like the clouds lifted and I was a free woman. The second one wasn't as severe but it was more persistent. I wasn't completely debilitated (I could walk, not crawl to the bathroom) but it was still a baseline of awfulness which made me throw up every day,.....right until I gave birth. Good luck and congratulations again!

Definitely much sicker with my girls than my boy. Pregnancy with him was a breeze, but with the girls I felt like I wanted to die most of the time. And he was number three after two girls, so maybe it'll work that way for you! I vote girl!!

I have one 17 month old son and am currently at 25 weeks with pregnancy #2, a girl. In my very limited sample size the boy was 100 times easier than this current intrauterine occupant - like night and day!From the beginning of each I had a strong feeling about the gender, and I was right. With the girl everything was/is just more intense and uncomfortable, to put things politely. I can't believe I have 3 months to go. I feel 20 months pregnant and enormous already. The morning sickness occured with both of my pregnancies and ended both times right on schedule at the first trimester's end, but it was much worse in intensity with this female. I've heard stories that girls are harder on a woman in gestation but when they come out they are sweet as can be...here's hoping. She's already kicked my ass!

Everyone's choosing girl because they want to see some semblance of gender parity in the family, but I honestly can't imagine you with a girl! I think you'll be a family of three boys! And hopefully all of them healthy and happy! Best of luck!!!!!!!!!